Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Cafe Rio Pork

For those of you who have lived or live in Utah this is the knock off of Cafe Rio's pork they use in their burritos and salads. It really is to die for and oh so easy to make. If you make a salad out of it it is pretty healthy for you as well(if you limit the dressing you put on it). Most recipes I have seen use a fattier piece of pork like the pork butt but I use the lean Pork loin roast and it works out great. If you love Mexican food you need to give this a try.

Cafe Rio Pork

3- 4lb pork loin

3 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups dr pepper, pepsi, or coke, root beer would even work

1 1/2 cups salsa

Place pork loin in a crock pot. Rub the pork with cumin, pepper, and salt. Mix the salsa, brown sugar, and soda together then pour over the spiced rubbed pork. Cook on high for 5-6 hours until the pork can easily pull apart and be shredded. Drain the Liquid off the pork but save it, you will dump most of it back over the shredded meat. Shred the pork and dump enough of the juices back on the pork to your liking.

Serve the pork in tortillas with black beans or refried beans or our favorite way is to make a salad. We use lettuce and fresh spinach, then add a little shredded meat, black beans, tomatoes, avocadoes, tortillas strips(for a little crunch) shredded cheese, and tomatillo ranch dressing.

Tomatillo Ranch dressing

1 ranch dressing mix packet

1 cup mayo

1 cup milk

2 tomatillos(found by the jalapenos and they look like a little green tomato)

1 jalapeno

juice of 1 lime

2 cloves fresh garlic

1 bunch of cilantro

Place all in a blender and mix until well combined. Serve with above pork on a salad.